Chronicle/Cory MorseMargarean Rowe holds a picture of her son, William James Rowe, who was injured in a hit-and-run accident on Feb. 1 that left him with severe brain damage.

Mothers don't give up hope."

Those are the words Margarean Rowe said she now lives by, months after her 46-year-old son, William James Rowe, was injured in a hit-and-run accident that left him with severe brain damage.

"When the doctor told me he'd be a vegetable and I should take him off life support, for a mother ... oh, Jesus. I thought, 'I'm going to keep praying for a miracle,' " she said. "I was devastated. I can't explain what that was like or how I felt at the hospital. It didn't look like my son at all."

Courtesy photoWilliam James Rowe

No one has come forward since her son was struck by a vehicle just after 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 1 while he was walking across Getty Street near Louis Avenue in Muskegon.

Authorities discovered William lying unconscious in the southbound lanes of Getty, bleeding from the head. One of his shoes was found several feet away in the northbound lane, police said.

A passerby told police she saw a man and woman tending to William before police arrived at the scene, but those people left before police could speak with them. A bloody T-shirt that presumably belonged to the man who tended to William was found near the accident scene.

But that "clue" is all the police have to go on, said Muskegon Police Detective Sgt. Monica Shirey.

"As of today, we have had no further leads, evidence or information," Shirey said Friday. "We're still requesting people call (authorities) if they know anything or saw anything."

The case remains open and she hopes the public can help solve it.

"We've pretty much done all we could at this point. Someone needs to come forward and do the right thing," Shirey said.

Authorities can't determine which direction William was coming from when he was struck, or whether he had alcohol in his system at the time, Shirey said.

Margarean Rowe

"Whether he had alcohol in his system or not doesn't tell us whether or not that would have played a factor in the accident," she said.

Since the accident, 69-year-old Margarean said she still struggles with the fact that the person who struck her son didn't bother to stop.

"I mean, you hit a dog and you stop. You hit a deer and you stop. But to hit a human and then keep on going? I just cried and cried and cried until I didn't have no tears left," she said.

Now she urges those two people who reportedly tended to William to "come forward."

"I would just say, 'Would you please come forward and tell what you know about this accident?' Someone had to have seen something. To this woman and this man who were there, I ask, 'Please come forward and try to help us,'" she said.

As for the person who struck her son, Margarean struggles to find the words.

"I don't know how they could have (driven) away," she said. "I was so angry after it happened. Every time I'd think of it, I'd get so angry, but the anger is going down. It's getting better. I got hope."

Courtesy photoWilliam James Rowe was injured in a hit-and-run accident just after 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 1 while he was walking across Getty Street near Louis Avenue in Muskegon. The accident left him with severe brain damage.

Margarean said she visits her son twice a day at a local nursing home where he was transferred shortly after his stay at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids.

While he can't speak, eat or move on his own, Margarean said her son is progressing.

"He can move his one leg, but he's paralyzed on his right side. He's in a special wheelchair, but he's doing so much better. He recognizes me and knows who I am and recognizes people who talk to him," she said.

"So far it's been a miracle."

To communicate, William moves his eyes or shakes his head. There is no doubt in his mother's mind that William fully understands what's going on around him.

"He'll look at me and when I tell him, 'I love you,' he'll look back with those eyes. He's in there and he's coming out," she said.

Meghan Smith, who works in admissions at the nursing home, said it breaks her heart to see Margarean and William suffer.

"It's really sad to see a mother come in and look at her son and know someone did this to him. There is someone out there not sleeping at night, or someone is sleeping at night and shouldn't be," Smith said.

"It's so sad there are no answers to it. One day he was at home with her and the next day she's in the hospital with him. It's just so hard to see. It's the reverse order. It's supposed to be children coming in to see their parents at a nursing home."

In the meantime, Margarean said she prefers to remember her son as he was prior to the accident.

But she loves him just the same.

"He was the type of person who liked to help people. I live in a senior's home and he would go out there and shovel the snow and try to help the older people who got out of the car," she said.

"He was kind and considerate of the elderly. Children flocked to him. The elderly loved him. There is not a day that goes by where they don't ask about him."